BIO: John A. McCLELLAND, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, page 864.
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  JOHN A. McCLELLAND, justice of the peace at Brisbin, Pa., has been a resident 
of this borough for thirty-one years and has been identified with many of its 
leading business interests.  He was born September 27, 1864, in county Antrim, 
Ireland, although of Scotch descent, and is a son of Alexander and Ellen 
McClelland.  His father died when he was three years old and his mother when he 
was eleven.  At that time he was taken to Scotland, living with an aunt until 
coming to America in 1880.  There were three sons:  Robert, Thomas and John A., 
all of whom came to America and the two older brothers live in Cambria county, 
Pa.
  John A. McClelland is a self-made man, having only the opportunities for 
improvement in his youth that he made for himself.  He attended night schools in 
Scotland and this country and started to learn the blacksmith's trade before 
coming to America when he was fifteen years of age.  He came to Brisbin, where, 
through his own industry, he supported himself and soon gained the confidence of 
those with whom he was associated.  For fourteen years he successfully 
represented the Grand Union Tea Company, and then conducted a store for eight 
years, and later became interested in the coal industry.  At present Mr. 
McClelland is operating two coal mines at Ashland, in Decatur township.  He has 
been quite active politically for a number of years and during the term of 
office of Representatives Boulton and Scofield, was employed in a state position 
at Harrisburg.  For the past fifteen years he has served acceptably as a justice 
of the peace, his present term expiring in 1914, when he undoubtedly will be re-
elected.  He has been a Republican since he became a voter and at present is 
identified with what is termed the insurgent wing of the party, the one that 
demands progressiveness and stands for purity in politics.  He was his party's 
candidate for the General Assembly in 1910.  He has served in the borough 
council and in many local offices and during eleven years as a member of the 
school board, was its secretary during the larger period.
  Mr. McClelland was married in 1885, to Miss Annie Gertrude Berkstresser, a 
daughter of Rev. Jesse Berkstresser, now of Harrisburg.  Mrs. McClelland died 
January 26, 1906.  Four of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. McClelland survive, 
namely:  Jesse Valentine, Gertrude, Ellen Beatrice and Ernest, the other two 
being Catherine and John Ross.  Since 1885 Mr. McClelland has been a member of 
the Church of God.  He is identified fraternally with the Red Men and the 
Brotherhood of the Union, and was for eighteen years superintendent of the 
Sabbath school.